Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve. Episode two hundred and forty four Aftermath.
In our last episode, Cortes finally conquered Tenochticlon. For all practical purposes,
the empire that was Old Mexico was finished before the final siege even began.
It took several months, but Cortes finally beat and starved the Mexico into
submission. The downside, of course, was that in doing so, Cortes
had all but destroyed the Venice of the West, the seeming city of Tenoshti
Klan he had hoped to turn over to Charles the Fifth Intact. Now there
was little to turn over but rubble and corpses, and therein lies the problem.
All of Cortes's decision making turned on the goal of getting fast, movable
wealth that could easily be sent to Spain to justify Cortes's entire conquest. Now
it seemed that this was an ephemeral vision at best. So what to do?
In this episode we find Cortes trying to regroup again and create something lasting
in New Spain. Cortez had conquered an empire he had used well his talents
for flattery, for courtesy, for eloquence, for swift decision making, for
improvisation, for deviousness, and for sudden changes of plans. His will and
courage and adversity had always been decisive. He had used terror coldly and effectively.
His ambition to achieve something astonishing should have been satisfied. Cortes had also
done all this with men of his own, choosing these men would be fiercely
loyal to Cortes in the aftermath, especially given the reality that they depended on
Cortes to get some of the largess they had been promised. They understood that
if some new governor swept in now, it probably wouldn't get anything. Yet,
something essential was missing. Neither Cortez nor anyone else knew what Charles the
Fifth thought of their conquest. It had been two years since cortes men had
set off for Spain. In August fifteen twenty one. Cortes wrote a quick
note home that he had conquered the Mexica, which wasn't exactly true at the
time, but that note only reached Spain in March of fifteen twenty two,
nearly six months later. Cortes didn't know this, but Charles's court had vacillated
wildly over the New World in the past two years. Men like Diego Valasquez,
who had been so slighted by Cortes, still wanted to be more reasonable
in their approach. They wanted to establish a firm and comienda system that would
provide insistent harvests of tobacco and other cash crumps. The other faction saw the
New World as a sort of unlimited atm Their goal was to transfer the wealth
of the New World to the Old World full stop. They had no real
plan after that. Luckily for Cortes and unluckily for Velasquez, this latter group
was in ascension. In fifteen twenty two, the Spanish court once again looked
across the ocean and saw the New World as an unlimited land of milk and
honey of romance for conquering. This vision of the New World favored conquistadors like
Cortes, men with big ambitions, willing to take huge risks for the potential
of huge rewards. Of course, what Cortes did not know was that YEurope
at present was dealing with another major issue, the Reformation. Martin Luther and
Ulrich Zwingli were in full swing at the moment, and so Charles didn't have
much time to devote to pondering the new world. Moreover, this was still
the age of Charles versus Francis in northern Italy. The Battle of Pavia was
now only three years away, so Charles had a lot on his plate,
leaving Cortes alone for his first year as sort of de facto Mexican emperor between
fifteen twenty two and fifteen twenty three. This year was marked by several phenomenon
one the physical recovery of the Europeans member many had been wounded. Two,
the beginnings of the reconstruction of tenosht Clan number three, a ruthless search for
gold number four, the end of traditional Mexican religious practices at number five the
colonization of other parts of Old Mexico outside of Tenoshticlan. Cortez worked quickly in
fifteen twenty two to establish himself at Kyakon, the old Palace of the Emperor.
That is where he decided to set up his temporary government of Mexico.
So far as the administration of Old Mexico was concerned, Cortez decided he would
stick to the established model or at least he would try. Essentially, Cortes
would let the existing non Mexican nobles govern, and then he would govern and
through them. But this could only work so well because the reality is that
the old Mexican system was based on military dominance. So for the tribute system
to function, Spanish military dominance had to replace Mexican military dominance. Cortez couldn't
just leave a void and walk away. But for the moment, Cortez faced
other more immediate problems. The most critical of these was the food shortage.
As a result of the siege. There essentially was no corn crop in fifteen
twenty three in the Central Valley, or at the very least the corn crop
that year was a fraction of what it had been years prior. Cortez responded
to this problem pretty simply and brutally. The mexic Ica, those who had
survived, would suffer the most. Cortez would feed his men, then his
Indian allies, and the conquered last. Cortes behaved very much like an absolute
monarch in these early years. Frankly, there was no reason for him not
to absent any information from Europe. Cortes had little choice but to continue doing
what he felt was right. He began at least trying to rebuild Tenushtiklan,
though at least initially in fifteen twenty two, he and his lieutenants firmly believed
the site would have to be abandoned sooner rather than later. And here Cortez
made some use of the imprisoned q Adam Mac. Like he had with Montezuma,
Cortez paraded the deposed emperor out when it suited his purposes. He tried
to use q Adam Mac to get his people to prepare the water pipes essential
for bringing drinking water into the inner city. At the very least, he
hoped that the Mexica would clear the streets of debris and dead body. They
did to some extent. Cortez also tried to get people to live in the
less destroyed northern suburbs of the city. He built a new harbor at Texcoco
to try and reinvigorate trade. Like with the cleanup efforts, these had at
best a middling effect. And then there was the gold. Cortez was relentless.
Where was the gold? In part this was out of pure greed,
but in part it was out of necessity. The king's royal officials, once
the dust settled and tenosht Klan was in Spanish hands, were equally as relentless.
They wanted the gold. Two Charles got a fifth of whatever the conquistadors
found, and you can bet your bottom dollar he was going to get it.
Remember, he needed to pay all those creditors who paid his way to
the Holy Roman throne. So Cortez summoned his leading prisoners and put them to
the question, where were they hiding the gold? By and large these men
did not know, and if they did know, they struggled to explain their
answers to the Europeans. You see a lot of the luxury goods of old
Mexico. The gold, the silver, the feathers, the jade, the
amber. All these things were in the warehouses of the long distance merchants.
The Spanish simply failed to understand that trade was quite advanced in Old Mexico.
Their bias hid the truth from them, to their detriment. This will not
be the last time in our story that people allow their biases to cloud their
judgment and in the end find themselves harmed by their own blinders. None of
this helped Qadamak who was tortured to reveal the location of his allegedly hidden gold.
Q Adamak was tied to a stake at his feet, doused in oil,
and then set on fire. The last Emperor of Mexico tried to strangle
himself on the pole due to the pain. In the end, one of
his close advisers, up next for the same treatment, begged q Adamok to
say something, anything, to get him off the hook. Q Ademak only
sneered, looked daggers at him, and then said, quote, am I
enjoying some kind of delight or bath? Quote? A few days later,
Cortez had him hanged. The consequence of all this brutality was unsatisfying for everyone
involved. The new sum available was around one hundred and eighty five thousand and
two hundred thousand pasos worth of gold and silver. The crowns fifth was set
at thirty seven thousand pasos, and Cortez took another twenty six thousand and his
fifth. That left around one hundred and twenty thousand pasos to be divided amongst
the remaining seven hundred and fifty men. That, if you do the math,
is a paltry one hundred and sixty pasos per men. Given all that
these men had been through over the past several years, I think anyone would
say it had not been worth it. Those saddles made of gold, well,
I guess not. Of course, there were other spoils. There were
slaves and some jewels. But in the end, suffice it to say that
those who signed up to go with Cortes back in fifteen nineteen fifteen twenty one
did not get the riches they had been promised. And in case you're wondering,
no, Cortes was unwilling to even consider dipping into his fifth to compensate
them. Desperate to keep his rest of men busy, Cortes decided he would
send some of them to form new colonies. The emphasis on new conquests shows
the frontier spirit of these conquistadors. Now. Also after the conquest of Tenostclan,
Cortes faced the most serious challenge to his authority since the coming of Nevadez.
Back in Vita Cruz, Cristo ball Tapia stepped off a boat fresh from
Espanola. He had orders in his possession to take over New Spain, and
these orders came directly from the court at Castile. Tapia reached what is today
Mexico in December fifteen twenty one. He sent Cortes a letter, but Cortes
knew of his arrival long before receiving it. Tapia met with some of Cortes's
lieutenants on December the twenty fourth, fifteen twenty one. Those who met with
Tapia were polite but very determined. They looked at his orders. Several of
them even kissed them. They were from the Courton Castile after all, and
then talked quietly amongst themselves for a moment. Then they came back and gave
Tapia a firm no, no, thank you. Tapia's orders appointed him governor
and told him that they understood that these orders came from Charles the fifth.
However, they told their new ostensible governor that he didn't understand anything about the
situation in Mexico. He might have legal training, but he was totally unprepared
for the challenges posed in this new Spain. No, they said they would
not obey his orders. Instead, they would write an appeal to the King,
and in the meantime, Cortes, in their minds at least, remained
governor. Tapia seemed ready to accept the situation. But then several men from
Navadez his expedition approached Tapia with their own letters. We do not have these
today, but whatever was in them convinced Tapia to make another go of it.
He said he would remain in Mexico as a private citizen. But by
now Sandoval, Cortes's faithful servant, was on the scene and he was just
a bit firmer with this would be governor. He understood that whether Tapia remained
as a private citizen or as a member of the government, him simply remaining
in Mexico would be a thorn in Cortes's side that would not go away.
So Sandival went to Tapia and told him point blank, you have to go.
Tapia tried to delay, arguing he needed to sell some slaves. Sandoval
told him, no, I'll sell the slaves for you, but you need
to leave now. When Tapia again prevaricated, Sandoval told him, look,
buddy, you're either getting on a ship or you're going back to Santo Domingo
in a canoe. Your choice. Tapia chose the ship, and Santoval stayed
on the shore watching the whole time until the ship receded into the horizon.
Once again, the loyalty Cortes had instilled in his friends saved him back in
technost Klan. Cortes also decided he hadn't quite fulfilled the wonder lust in his
gut. He began a series of local campaigns, the most significant of which
were all to the east. This one campaign alone took Cortes most of fifteen
twenty two. Cortes would later complain that this campaign added an important and fertile
region to New Spain, that he was never compensated for all his expenses.
We need to take that comment with a grain of salt. Cortes would spend
much of his final years telling anyone who would listen how he had done more
than his fair share for the Spanish crown and had not been compensated. There
may or may not have been any truth to it. One thing is really
interesting about these campaigns, however, Sure Cortes took the usual Taxican and Texcocan
warriors and lords with him, but he also took a large number of Mexica
lords and warriors. Evidently, with the fight for Technoshtiklan over, Cortez felt
he could turn the other cheek. Moreover, by early fifteen twenty two,
Cortez had clearly determined to rebuild Tenosht Clan. That decision was controversial. Frankly,
it was controversial partly because for Cortez it was a complete about face in
policy. Cortez had previously said Tenosht Clan would be abandoned and anyone caught there
would be hanged. Then by February fifteen twenty two, Cortez completely changed his
mind. That winter rebuilding was already underway. According to our sources, by
the spring of fifteen twenty three, there were four d thousand Mexicans working to
rebuild technosh Declon, an exaggeration, of course, how much, though,
well that's hard to say. Very quickly dynosh Declon began to take shape once
more. It helped that the Mexica took to European construction methods like fish to
water, from nails and pulleys to candles and steel knives. They immediately grasped
the advantages of it all. While the Mexica knew about the wheel, they
had never conceived of the wheelbarrow. And when mules arrived from Spain, well
that just about changed everything. Like I said in the last episode, Old
Mexico was gone. It is almost like turning a page. New Spain was
here to stay. Yet, speaking of Old Spain, Cortes still had no
message from Castile, he had no orders from Charles the fifth, and frankly,
he had no idea what was going on in Europe. We need to
remember that during the early modern period, the fastest news could travel was the
fastest a horse could ride or a ship could sail. Men like Cortes had
to make decisions in the dark. So Cortes sent more letters home, desperate
for news. He also sent home a massive treasure, about fifty thousand pasos
in gold. Most of this was in the form of gifts to various churches
and to Bishop Fonseca himself. Remember, during the early years of the United
Spanish monarchy, this bishop and other churchmen were the administration of the empire.
By favoring them, Cortes hoped to get a little love back himself. Now,
sadly, one of Cortes's treasure fleets was attacked by a French pirate by
the name of Jeanne Flory. Between the Azores and Spain, many of Cortes's
gifts were lost. While the incidents would spark a conversation back in Spain about
the need for treasure convoys, which would actually become the dominant mode of transporting
treasure from the New World to the Old World. In short order, those
discussions came too late to help Cortez. One of his three ships did manage
to escape the pirates clutches and reached Spain on November eighth. Now things in
Spain were very different than they had been in fifteen nineteen. News of the
fall of technosoty Klan reached Europe on March the first, fifteen twenty two.
Hope Adrian, though distracted by his scheduled meeting with Martin Luther, issued a
papal bull reminding everyone that missionaries needed to be a major part of the expeditions
to Mexico. It would be his final word on the subject. Adrian's paypalsy
was as painful as it was brief. As for Charles, he seems to
have been interested in the news from New Spain. On a visit to England
that June, Charles showed King Henry the Eighth some of the initial treasures Cortes
sent him from Mexico. The Emperor then continued on to valladaalid in Spain,
where he would remain the next seven years, the longest period he would stay
in one place. One of Charles's first decisions upon arrival in Spain was to
appoint a special committee to advise him on Cortes. Crucially, the conservative Bishop
Fonseca was not a member of this council, and the committee was blunt in
its findings and its decision. Cortes would be acquire it to repay Velasquez for
what he had loaned him for the fleet back in fifteen eighteen, but beyond
that and he disputes the two men had were to be settled in the courts,
and Velasquez was told point blank not to interfere with Cortes's affairs any longer.
It certainly helped Cortes's case that Mexican gold was already by winter fifteen twenty
two funding King Charles's Italian wars. Charles happily received the committee's findings, and
on October eleventh, fifteen twenty two, he formally appointed Cortez as the Governor
of New Spain. That same order also fixed salaries for Cortes and all the
other officials in New Spain, Cortes would get three hundred sixty six thousand monavetis
per year. Foot soldiers would get a little less eleven thousand, eight hundred
and thirty two, a very exact figure for the time, but much to
Cortes's chagrin. Other new royal officials would get five hundred thousand and ten modavides
per year. Cortez, in the end, if you look at the salaries,
he got a little more than some other cunquistadors who had discovered really small
islands in the Caribbean. All in all, I mean, if we're just
looking at land here, it certainly seems like he deserved a bigger share,
but he didn't get it. It took, as you can guess, forever
for this news to reach the New World. One group was sent to Mexico
to give Cortez the good news. Another went to Cuba to give Governor Velasquez
the bad news. In the meantime, before the news got there, Cortes
continued to work on New Spain. His biggest challenge was how to set up
some kind of economic system in New Spain that would encourage cooperation between the Native
Indians and the arriving Europeans. To his credit, Cortes firmly believed that the
Mexica were much more sophisticated, much more intelligent than the native Tainos in the
Caribbean, and therefore, initially, at least he wanted to avoid a strict
and comiendas system. But in the end he caved to the demands of his
men. They had risked their lives for him and for what turned out to
be a poultry amount of gold. They wanted to be paid, and this
time they wanted to be repaid with lavish estates and men and women to work
them. So in the end Cortez assigned different Mexican lords to different Europeans,
granted the latter the former's lands, and told everyone to get to work.
Cortes maybe wanted to do the right thing at first, but in the end
he's still a conquistador. The Spanish quickly developed legal systems with the express intent
of ensnaring the Mexicans and using legal apparati to make them work, but the
Mexica quickly mastered litigation. They took the Spanish to court all the time,
consistently charging them with all sorts of breaches of the law. Their favorite was
neglecting their religious responsibilities, which, given the men who came to the New
World to make their fortunes, was probably an easy charge to make stick.
Despite some of his initial hesitation, Cortez quickly took a keen interest in seeing
the system succeed and in himself being a part of that success. He allocated
himself, by his own estimate, a million souls for his own lands.
He also worked to import cows, sheep, and pigs with the intent of
making Mexico agriculturally productive in a European sense. To keep the people pacified,
Cortes imported mendicant friars to convert the population of Mexico and mass Cortes thought that
Christianity could keep the people of Mexico docile and under the Spanish thumb. He
wasn't necessarily wrong, and under Cortes, fifty years of dominant nation by the
religious orders began, mostly the Dominicans and Augustinians, But as we're going to
see, it didn't last forever. Cortez also wanted to ensure that he could
defend his new province, so he sought to build the first factories for gunpowder
and artillery manufacture in the New World. On September thirteenth, fifteen twenty three,
those emissaries from Spain finally reached Cortez and informed him he was now legally
the governor of New Spain. He was jubilant. Cortez had faced obstacles too
numerous account in his quest to conquer Mexico, but through a combination of audacity,
courage, ruthlessness, and downright good luck, Cortez outlasted and overcame them
all. A great grandson of Montezuma later reflected on the level of change that
swept Mexico between fifteen nineteen and when he wrote in fifteen eighty seven. Culturally
the landscape had been transformed. The conquering Europeans had by then covered the land
with monasteries, churches, shrines, and parishes. By the late sixteenth century,
Mexico was a Catholic kingdom, and it remains a Catholic country today.
The turning point for those interested came in fifteen thirty one, when the Virgin
Mary was supposed to have appeared with dark skin, beginning the cult of the
Brown Virgin. Or if like me, you attended Catholic services. Growing up.
You might know her as the Virgin of Guadalupe. She was the first
divine hero heroin for the New Kingdom. She would not be the last.
The landscape had also been transformed in another very physical way. Historians estimate the
population of Old Mexico in fifteen nineteen as to be in the range of eight
million people. In fifteen sixty, the same region at a population of only
two point six million, about a quarter of what it had been. Through
disease, mostly starvation, and war, the population of Old Mexico had been
virtually wiped out. One historian I read made a comparison that I think is
particularly apt. Had Old Mexico's population not plummeted like it did, the New
Spain would have looked a lot more like colonialism in India, where you had
two distinct classes of people, the ruling British and the native Indian population.
Instead, in New Spain, what we see is a relatively small group of
immigrants, mostly men from Spain, intermarrying with Native Mexicans to produce a new
class of people. We're talking about a very small number of Spaniards here.
We're willing to make the journey to Mexico, maybe around one hundred and fifty
thousand, probably less. This is a phenomenon we will talk about a lot
more in future episodes, how the ethnic makeup of different classes ultimately structured how
whole nations design their economic and political systems. But that is a story for
another day. By fifteen ninety eight, we still have some records of the
descendants of Montezuma living in poverty. Marina Cortes, is crucial interpreter, lived
on until fifteen fifty one. She later married a Spaniard and had a daughter.
She also had a son, but his father was Heronan Cortes. As
for the other main loser in all this in terms of political winners and losers,
poor old governor of Cuba, Diego Velasquez, died in fifteen twenty four.
A footnote in the history and story of the man he did everything to
stop. All of Cortez's main companions, by and large, died in Mexico.
Navarez, after making his way back to Cuba, took part in Ponce
de Leon's voyage to Florida to find the Fountain of Youth. Just about everyone
who took part in that expedition, he died horribly. As for Cortez well,
as life continued on, he was still under forty and fifteen twenty five,
many might have wondered what the future would hold for the man who conquered
Old Mexico, But in any ways, his life was over. He had
already hit his crescendo. Other men like Francisco Pizaro would conquer other indigenous empires,
but not Cortes. His conquistadordes were over. Cortes tried to recapture some
of the old glory by marching with a large army to what is today Honduras.
Few of his men survived and the expedition accomplished nothing. Cortes returned to
Technos Declan to find that the city deteriorated in his absence. Throughout fifteen twenty
six, Cortes tried to re establish order, but he was just worn out.
By March fifteen twenty eight, he was on a ship bound for Spain.
Charles the Fifth at first welcomed him warmly. Later on, however,
he would find his favorite conquistador but a bit too much bravado. As you
might remember from our episodes on Charles, Cortes was there in person during the
Spanish failed attempt to recapture Tunisia from the Ottoman Turks. Cortes famously wanted Charles
to lead his men on what would have been a sure suicide mission straight into
the enemy defenses, insisting all the while they could win. I mean,
after all, he Cortes had attacked larger numbers in one in Mexico, had
he not. But the Ottomans were not the Mexico. And this is just
one example of how, in so many ways Cortes struggled to find a place
back in Europe. In the spring of fifteen thirty, he decided he would
return to Mexico. Arrived in Bettacruz on July the fifteenth, fifteen thirty.
He embarked on a few more expeditions to the Pacific, searching for the rumored
strait linking that ocean with the Caribbean Sea. He never found it, mostly
because you know, it doesn't exist. Past the prime of his life,
in the fifteen forties, he decided to call it quits and permanently return to
Spain. He spent the last years of his life alone with his family,
increasingly consumed by his own legacy and illusions of grandeur. He never felt that
Charles or any of the Spanish nobility gave him enough credit for what he had
accomplished. He died on December second, fifteen forty seven. He left behind
massive wealth, large family, and a legend almost too great to fathom.
I think the word that best encapsulates Cortes is audacity. Cortes was a gambler
to the very end. Time and time again, he was outnumbered, out
gunned, and often outmaneuvered. Yet surrender was a word he didn't understand.
He was the epitome of an age that valued courage and risk taking, and
he remains today the ultimate conquistador. Before we turn to the Inca next week
and the aforementioned Frenziescopizaro, I want to leave you with Cortes's own words,
but I think some up how he thought about himself. In fifteen twenty four,
Cortez sent a model silver cannon to Charles the Fifth. The silver,
fittingly came from Montezuma's own minds. On it, Cortes inscribed the following directed
to Charles quote, this was born without equal. I am without a second
in serving you. You are without equal in the world